Emily Windsnap and the Siren's Secret (16 page)

Shona smiled at Amara, her big round eyes full of innocence and excitement. “How do you know?” she asked.

Amara tilted her head toward me. “From your friend,” she said.

Lorelei swam beside Amara and held out a hand to Shona. “We’ve heard
so
much about you,” she said, sounding as much like Shona’s long-lost best friend as Amara.

Shona reached out awkwardly to shake Lorelei’s hand, but Lorelei took hold of it instead and turned it over to examine the back. “Oh, just look at those dainty fingers,” she said. “I think you’ve got the prettiest nails I’ve ever seen on a siren!”

Shona blushed. “We did nail decorating in B. and D. this week,” she said. Turning even deeper red, she added, “I got the best score, actually.”

“Beauty and Deportment — oh, that was my favorite subject at school,” Lorelei said with what sounded to me like a bitter cackle heavily disguised as a wistful sigh.

“Mine too!” Shona exclaimed. “And my best.”

“Well, fancy that; so much in common already. Now, singing — that was my other favorite thing in school.” Lorelei licked her lips, as though sizing Shona up for her dinner plate.

“Oh, singing is my favor —”

“Shona!” I burst out. I couldn’t listen to this any longer. “Don’t tell them anything else!”

Shona stared at me. “What d’you mean, Em? Why in the ocean shouldn’t I?”

“They aren’t what they seem! They’re evil and mean, and they want to use you for their own purposes.”

“What purposes?”

I hesitated. “I don’t know,” I admitted, lowering my head. “But believe me. You can’t trust them!”

Amara let out a soft laugh. “Oh, dear — have we made someone jealous?” Then she reached out with one of her spindly thin fingers and stroked Shona’s hair. “So pretty,” she said. “If your singing is anywhere near as beautiful as the rest of you, I’m sure we’d all
love
to hear it.”

Shona beamed at Amara.

“Shona,
please
don’t trust them,” I pleaded. “Don’t be fooled.”

Shona turned to me. “She’s right,” she said, jutting a thumb at Amara. “You’re jealous. You just don’t want me to get all this attention, do you? It’s usually you at the center of attention, and now it’s my turn and you don’t like it!”

“Shona, that’s not it at all!” I said. “Why on earth would I —?”

“Enough of this!” Lorelei suddenly butted in. “Let’s go tell the others we’ve found ourselves the little siren.”

Shona looked so pleased at being called a siren, you’d think she’d just been crowned queen of the sea.

Amara and Lorelei began to swim away, escorting Shona between them. Before they left the room, I grabbed Shona’s arm.

“Shona, when have I ever lied to you?” I asked. “When have I stopped you from getting attention?”

She held still in the water for a moment, her tail splishing around nervously, her forehead creased into a frown. “I don’t know,” she said. “I suppose you haven’t.”

“Then believe me,” I said urgently. “They’re not to be trusted!”

Amara picked up a brush from the rocky side cabinet in Morvena’s room. She brushed Shona’s hair with it in a couple of long sleek movements. “So smooth,” she said gently. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen hair so soft and perfect.” As she smiled at Shona, her face was such a picture of wonder and admiration that I was almost taken in myself.

“You must be mistaken, Em,” Shona said softly. “I’m sorry. I know you wouldn’t deliberately stop something nice from happening to me; I shouldn’t have said that. But I’m being treated like the siren I’ve dreamed of being my whole life! Please don’t try to take that away from me,” she pleaded.

Before I had a chance to say anything, Lorelei took hold of Shona’s arm. “Come on,” she said sweetly, between gritted teeth that Shona clearly hadn’t noticed. “Let’s go.”

“What about Emily?” Shona asked.

Amara left her side and swam over to me. “I’ll tell you what,” she said. “As a special treat, I’ll take Emily off for a special seaweed wrap: our very own spa treatment. How does that sound?”

It sounded like she’d probably rather wrap me up in the seaweed and leave me to rot. It wasn’t much use complaining, though, as she was already leading me out the door. Shona was swimming ahead with Lorelei, so she didn’t see Amara’s hand clutching my arm so tightly her nails left red marks in my skin.

It took a few moments to realize where Amara had taken me. I was back in the well, only this time the hole in the wall was blocked. She’d dragged a rock in front of it, and it was too heavy for me to push out of the way.

I swam around, feeling my way along the walls for a way out. Nothing. I tried to swim upward. Impossible. The invisible waterfall just threw me back down again and again.

I slumped down on the sandy floor and tried not to think too hard about the stupid, hopeless, awful mess I’d gotten myself into. How did I do it? Every single time I tried to do anything to solve a problem, I always managed to create a bigger one in the process.

I looked down at the murky seabed. Two round blue fish with large orange fins floated toward each other. Flapping gently, they skirted the surface of the well, chasing each other around in a circle. I was busy chasing my miserable thoughts around in a circle of their own.

I pulled myself into a ball, huddling my arms over my tail. Then I heard a noise.
Must be one of the sirens,
I thought. I hoped it was Morvena. At least she didn’t seem as mean as the others.

But the sound was coming from above me.

I jumped up and craned my neck to look up into the well.

“Emily!”

My heart leaped. It sounded like . . . but it couldn’t be — could it? I didn’t dare hope. Surely I’d imagined it. That was what happened when you were confined in a dark cell like this. My spirits sank again, as though they too had been hurled into a dark, hopeless, underwater cell.

“Emily, can you hear me? Are you there?”

I looked up again. This time I saw something, too. I
wasn’t
imagining it! There was a figure at the top of the well. A face. I couldn’t see him clearly, but I knew who it was. It was really him!

“Aaron?” I called, the word echoing around the walls, spiraling up toward him.

“Emily! Where are you? Are you down the well?”

“Yes, I’m here — can you see me? I can see you!”

Aaron shook his head. “All I can see is water!” he yelled. “I’ve been swimming all over. This was my last hope.”

“How did you know I was around here at all?” I called back.

Aaron paused for a long time. I could still see him there above me, leaning into the well. He didn’t reply.

“Aaron?”

“Don’t be mad, but I followed you,” he said eventually. “Mandy told me what happened. I know you wanted to be with Shona, but I was worried. I just wanted to keep an eye on you. But then you both disappeared, and I’ve been trying to find you ever since. I just had this awful feeling that something bad had happened to you.”

He wasn’t wrong there.

“Can you get out?” he called.

I shook my head. “It’s too strong.”

“Right, I’m coming down, then,” he yelled. “Hold on.”

For a fraction of a second, I held my breath and allowed myself to smile for the first time all day. Aaron was here! He had come to find me, to save me!

Then I remembered.

“No!” I screamed. “Don’t come down!”

“Why? What’s wrong?” Aaron sounded hurt. “Do you just want to be with Shona? I’ll go away if you want, now that I know you’re safe.”

“No! Don’t go away!” I screamed even more urgently. “But don’t come down.”

“Don’t come down but don’t go away? What do you want me to do, then?”

“You can’t come down,” I said. “You’ll never be able to get out again. They said earlier: you can get in but you can’t get out. No one can! I don’t want you trapped in here, too.”

“Who was talking earlier?” Aaron asked. “Who’s in there with you? Em, I’m coming down!”

“No!” I pleaded. “It’s the lost sirens — they’re all trapped in here by the waterfall. It’s magic.”

“Magic? Em, don’t be —” He stopped.

“Aaron?”

He paused for ages. “Magic, you say?” he called eventually.

“Yeah, it’s like they’ve had a curse put on them or some —” I stopped abruptly.

“Emily?” Aaron said breathlessly.

“A curse,” I repeated.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” he asked.

“If the sirens are trapped in here because of a curse, perhaps we could undo it?”

“Exactly!”

But then, just as quickly as my hopes had risen, they shot back down again. “Except for the magic to work, our hands have to touch,” I said. “And how can they do that through this thing?”

“Maybe I should just come down after all, and we’ll figure it out from there.”

“No!” I shouted. “It’s not worth the risk. If you come down and we can’t stop it, we’ll
both
be stuck here.”

“OK, listen,” Aaron called, all the hesitancy gone now. “Edge as high up as you can get, and stretch your hand as far as you can reach.” This sounded hopeful, and my spirits lifted again.

I tried to swim up through the invisible waterfall. The weight above me was so huge, I had to look down.
Come on, fight it, get through it
.

I swished and splashed my tail as hard as I could, trying desperately to gain some ground. I clung to the rocky sides, gripping tightly as I tried to heave myself upward — but it was useless. I wasn’t getting anywhere. The sirens knew what they were talking about; there was no getting out of here.

“It’s impossible,” I called.

“No — it’s not. Don’t say that.”

“I can’t do it. I can just about drag myself up into the current, but only for about a second before I’m thrown back down again,” I said. “It’s no use.”

“A second might be all we need,” Aaron called. “Stay there — don’t go anywhere.”

I would have laughed if I’d had the energy. Where exactly was I likely to go? That was the whole point, wasn’t it?

“I’ll be right back, OK?”

I slumped back on the seafloor, bedraggled, exhausted, and out of ideas.

Ten minutes later, Aaron’s face reappeared at the top of the well.

“I’ve got it!” he said. “I’ve tied a long trail of seaweed around my waist and secured it to a rock at the top here. I’m going to lower myself slowly. When I say ‘now,’ drag yourself as high up as you can. If we both reach out at the right time, maybe it’ll work.”

It sounded like a slim chance to me. But then a slim chance was better than anything I’d managed to come up with. “OK,” I called up.

I watched as Aaron lowered himself into the well. Instantly, he shot down in a rush, whirling about in the water, banging against the sides. But then he stopped going any lower. Dangling halfway down the well and bouncing around in the current, he grabbed the seaweed around his middle, letting it out bit by bit. Then he gave me a thumbs-up sign. I whirled my tail around, preparing to swim the hardest I’d ever swum. I felt around the rocky walls, searching for the best grip to pull myself up.

Aaron edged closer and closer, gradually letting himself drop down toward me. I gripped the wall, digging my fingers hard into the rock.

“Now!” he yelled.

Spinning my tail so fast it felt like a propeller, I heaved myself up as hard as I could with one hand, reaching upward with my other arm. I couldn’t see anything — the force pushed my head down. Nothing, nothing. Just whirling, crashing water. I gripped the rock harder, dragging myself a tiny bit higher, flailing around with my arm, searching blindly for Aaron’s hand.
Come on, Aaron, where are you?

And then I felt it! His hand touched mine. Just a flicker — just for a fraction of a second as our hands brushed past each other. Not long enough. The waterfall still raged.

Come on — I can’t fight it much longer.

I was slipping down. We didn’t have long. Aaron’s hand brushed mine again. This time, I grabbed hold of it as though my life depended on it. Maybe it did.

His hand was warm against mine. He held on just as tightly — but nothing was happening.
Please stop,
I said silently to the waterfall.
Please calm down.

And then, exhausted and empty, I closed my eyes. I’d run out of energy. My hand slipped from the wall, my tail flapped lifelessly. It was all over.